Monthly Archives: August 2013

The most exciting two-division champion of his era, Jhonny Gonzalez, looks to fight his way back to the top against undefeated WBC featherweight champion Abner Mares at the StubHub Center this Saturday.

The 27 year old Mares has won titles at 118, 122 and 126 pounds and currently the undefeated younger man as compared to the grizzled Gonzalez at 31 years with 62 career bouts and 300+ rounds of wear on him. By career record Mares is 24-0-1, 14 KO to Gonzalez 54-8, 46 KO, but more importantly Mares is the money fighter picked by Golden Boy and Showtime to be featured for as long as they can ride him. He also happens to be one of the dirtiest boxers of his era with a plethora of blatant old school fouls that he is almost never reprimanded for much less penalized, so he’s clearly the house fighter from every angle save one.

Here’s Jhonny

It was a curse really when Hayman/GoldenBoy News of the Ring World “boxing experts” picked Mares by a 17-0 shutout to beat Jhonny Gonzalez. Early in the year they dismissed most of their “boxing experts” after some spectacularly blown shutout prognostications, so their latest team may have well set the stage for Jhonny Gonzalez for another one of his patented comebacks by blasting high flying favorites out of the sky like clay pigeons at a trap shoot.

Gonzalez has taken another step to improve his chances by employing legendary trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain to impart some of the Juan Manuel Marquez magic to the Gonzalez mix. He may have had spectacular wins over top competition Hozumi Hasegawa and Fernando Montiel, but it is Mares who will be the overwhelming darling of the sporting crowd who love a sure thing. The California referee is Jack Reiss who would seemingly favor the naturalized Californian over Gonzalez who primarily fights out of Mexico.

Could be a real stinker or could be a fantastic fight, all dependent on which version of Abner Mares turns up. He showed excellent natural talent and skills at the start of his career and seems to have a lot of heart, so we’ll have to see if he wants an all time classic between two top ranked Mexican fighters as part of his legacy.

Jhonny Gonzalez may be overmatched on paper, but he has shown a transcendental quality in his biggest fights, so Here’s Jhonny yet again loaded in the breech of destiny, waiting, waiting……waiting for those big looping punches to power him to yet another stunning upset as we await the opening bell. Can he?

This August 24 th in Schwerin, Germany a very dynamic top ranked heavyweight bout takes place when Kubrat Pulev defends his IBF International bauble against Tony “Tiger” Thompson. The 41 year old Thompson put a tiger in his gas tank of late with two consecutive stoppage wins over huge punching giant Brit David Price. “Have Fists, Will Travel” should be Thompson’s new moniker since this is his 4th straight bout overseas as he takes on Pulev only 6 weeks after last absorbing heavy artillery from David Price. Amazing!

Pulev vs Giant Ustinov

That Thompson is hungry for big fights late in his career is a good way to spike his career earnings before retirement, but he best be on his best form this time around. Pulev had a very active 2012 with 3 big knockouts over top heavies while snatching the EBU European belt, so he’s long overdue for some serious action after the terrible frustration trying to secure the IBF eliminator as top ranked contenders pulled out of proposed bouts. He’s as big and strong as you would expect a Bulgarian athlete to be and possessed of an iron chin and loves to fight, in short, a brutal night’s work for anyone in the division.

Thompson applies the cross eyed hex..

As the younger fighter solidly arrived at the top rankings at a prime aged 32 on his home turf, I expect Pulev to be the big favorite, but he may have to shake off some ring rust first. As such, I expect Thompson to jump on him early in the fight for a chin check and possible early KO.

Good luck Tony, you’ll need all of it you can conjure up, because once this big Bulgarian gets warmed and rolling, he won’t stop until someone is flattened, and at 17-0, 9 KO, it’s always been the other fighter. One of the best heavyweight bouts than can be made this year, so congrats to the fighters and promotional teams for making it come together. Boxing needs to stand up and take note.